Organizational Form and Mission in the Alternative Food Movement

Abstract

Abstract:

Scholars and journalists alike have looked to the local food movement as an example of a rise in "ethical consumption" or "consumer citizenship," either deriding it as weak form of social movement activity or praising it as a strong form of embedded economic activity. I examine the alternative food movement as a set of new consumer organizations with specially defined ethical and communal goals and ask how organizational structure and mission impact the practices these organizations undertake to implement various social and economic goals. I first interview over 20 founders from the field to understand how founding motivations are associated with structural and mission focused considerations, providing broad context into the field as a whole. The bulk of my analysis is, however, a deep dive: extended participant observation on six organizations over the course of the selling season, running each week or more over about six months, with follow up communications and interviews. Narrowing my focus on two organizational forms--markets and cooperatives--and three types of missions--instrumental, food focused goals; social justice goals; and both--I examine how aspects of relational work varied across organizations, based on their missions and forms. In so doing I uncover a picture of social purpose organizations that is both richer and more complex than earlier theory on these organizations has suggested.